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Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro

This Spicy Mexican Slaw is a salad I make over and over, and this flavorful slaw is low-carb, gluten-free, South Beach Diet friendly, vegan, and it could even be Paleo or Whole 30 with the right mayo and hot sauce. If you're not a cilantro fan, use more thinly sliced green onions.

When I shared the Low-Carb Slow Cooker Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas that all my recipe testers swooned over, I recommended serving it with this Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro, and this is a salad I've been crazy over for years. It's been overdue for a photo make-over for quite a while now, but that hasn't hurt the popularity of this delicious spicy slaw.

This recipe has such a perfect combination of ingredients that when I first tried the salad in 2008, after one bite I knew I'd be making it over and over again. I spotted the recipe in Fine Cooking Annual 2008, and it immediately appealed to me with an ingredient list that included cabbage, cilantro, mayo, and lime. I did adapt the recipe a bit, and since I like my cabbage salads crunchy, I completely ignored the recipe instructions to salt and drain the cabbage.

I've made this quite a bit for family parties and wedding showers, with one bowl with cilantro and another bowl (for the cilantro-haters) with lots of thinly sliced green onion replacing the cilantro. I've used Sriracha Sauce for the spicy kick, but it's Green Tabasco Sauce that I use most often, although any hot sauce you like can be used. If you like cabbage salads at all, I urge you to try this salad; I bet you'll love it just as much as I do.

(Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro was first posted in 2008 and f-i-n-a-l-l-y updated with better photos in February 2016. The recipe was originally posted for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by a blog that's no longer online.)

Whisk together the mayo, lime juice, and hot sauce to make the dressing. (Start with smaller amounts of lime juice and hot sauce and taste it until it seems perfect to you.) Thinly slice the green and red cabbage. (This is easiest and you'll get best results with a mandoline slicer.) Chop green onions and cilantro and mix with the cabbage, then stir in just enough dressing to moisten the slaw, season with salt or Vege-Sal to taste, and devour!

This is best freshly made, but I've eaten leftovers for breakfast many times after they'd been in the fridge overnight, not minding at all that the red cabbage turns the salad pink when it sits.

And just for old time's sake, here's the original photo of this recipe from 2008, back in the days when ultra close-up photos were the thing on food blogs.

Ingredients:
4 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
(You can use all green or all red cabbage.)
2 green onions, thinly sliced, or more
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, or more (If you're not a cilantro fan just use more green onion.)

Dressing Ingredients:
4 T mayo (or a little more if you like your salad with lots of dressing)
3 T fresh lime juice; more or less to taste (If you're not crazy about sour flavors, start with a smaller amount and add more to the dressing until it tastes good to you.)

1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste (Start with a small amount, then taste the dressing and add more until it's as spicy as you prefer. I like this best with Green Tabasco Sauce, but I've made it withSriracha sauce many times. Any hot sauce will work, but hot sauce that's orange will turn the cabbage pink if it's refrigerated overnight.)

salt to taste (I used Vege-Sal which I greatly prefer over regular salt for this salad.)

Instructions:

In small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together, mayo, lime juice, and hot sauce. (Start with less than the full amount of lime juice and hot sauce and keep adding until you have the desired blend of sour/hot flavor.)

Thinly slice cabbage, using a mandoline slicer if you have one. Slice green onions, and wash, dry and chop cilantro. (I use a Mini salad spinner to wash herbs and spin them dry.) Combine cabbage, green onions and cilantro in large salad bowl.

Use a wooden spoon to mix dressing into cabbage mixture. Season to taste with salt and serve immediately, or chill for a few hours.

This salad will keep well overnight in the refrigerator, but the lime juice will cause the red cabbage to bleed color and turn the salad slightly pink. If you're making extra you might want to use all green cabbage, although I didn't mind the pink color at all when I ate the leftovers! Another good strategy if you're not cooking for many people is to chop the cabbage and green onion and mix the dressing for the full amount and store in the fridge, then chop cilantro and stir salad together in smaller amounts as you're going to eat it.

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you. Or if you're a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.

Going Crazy Over Cabbage Salad:(Recipes from other blogs not always Low-Carb or South Beach Diet friendly; check ingredients.)

Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

Slaw is something I grew up thinking I didn't like. Now it's a favorite that we have all year almost once a week. I'll have to try this one. Lime and cilantro that's got to be a winner! I've gotten pretty good at making just what the two of us will eat as we like it crispy!

I'm a big fan of cruciferous veggies also! But I don't have a lot of time to cook, so every week or so I buy a bag of red and green shredded cabbage and a bag of shredded broccoli. I mix the two together and dump a bit of Marazetti coleslaw dressing on top. Then I'm ready to eat lunch or fast snacks for the rest of the week!

Never tire of cabbage. I need to use more of it. I like the idea of just having it on hand and tossing it in whenever...I wouldn't salt/wilt it either...Crunchy is always best.I'm going to plant my cilantro soon...We'll see....

I have to try this one some time with fish tacos as everyone seems to be suggesting. Here is a good, healthy fish taco recipe http://www.chefmd.com/recipe_display.php?id=44 Like you said cabbage is a nutritional powerhouse; it's been associated with a 40% reduced risk of ovarian cancer. Pretty good for colorful cabbage and tacos. If you are interested, you should look at more of the information on the ChefMD site.

I am a new reader and I just love your blog! It has become my go-to source for encouragement and recipes (I'm in week 2 of Phase 1). Thanks for another great recipe! Even my picky 11yo loves this coleslaw :-) You make me feel like I can really do this for the rest of my life!

Yum, this sounds so good! I have everything that I need except lime juice. I know this is probably crucial, but I hate to make a run to the store. Is there any substitution you think I could make or just omit?

You could make it with white balsamic vinegar or rice wine vinegar, although it wouldn't be quite the same. You're right that what makes this special is the lime juice so try it again that way when you have some limes.

I just made this. I made it with the pre-packaged cole slaw mix that they have at the grocery store, which also had some carrots and such. This was REALLY good. I will never eat regular cole slaw again. I forgot the green onions (woe!), nixed the cilantro, and added raisins. Twas delicious. Thanks Kalyn.

It had been a long time since I'd made this once before, and I tried last night to see if I could remember how to make it, and upon review of the recipe here today, I see that I was spot on! That just shows what an easy recipe this is, if I can remember it after all that time.

I don't really like traditional cole slaw, but I love this. When I'd made it a while back, I'd mixed red and green cabbage. Since it is just my husband and I, we had leftovers, and it had all turned a bright pink overnight thanks to the red cabbage and mayo. So eating it immediately after making it definately preserves the different vibrant colors in the dish.

Last night I used only green cabbage but added a shredded carrot for some color. Everything else I did the same way. I used Texas Pete for the hot sauce. It turned out as yummy as the first time I'd made it, and it went great with our ceviche and our black bean and corn salad!

I love this blog! It's totally helping me with my South Beach diet, and it encourages me to get really creative in the kitchen (which I LOVE doing).

So, I just wanted to say that I took your Mexican slaw recipe and gave it my own healthy twist. Instead of cabbage, I had a bunch of broccoli stalks leftover from some broccoli crowns I had broken down for munchies. So I ran the stalks through my food processor, along with a couple of carrots. I omitted the cilantro (unfortunately I'm one of the few that find that it tastes funky) and added sriracha, and the slaw is EXCELLENT, as well as high in fiber due to the broccoli!

Thanks, Kalyn, for the suggestions and yummy recipe. Here's what I did to make this mayo free - 3 T fresh lime juice, 2 T honey, 3 T rice wine vinegar, 1 t Dijon mustard, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/4 t salt, 1 t chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. I made this twice this week for different events and came home each time with an empty bowl. Will definitely try it with fish tacos.

I made the slaw last night. It was great! I used my mother's trick to keep the red cabbage from bleeding. After you shred the cabbage, soak it in warm water for a half hour or longer. Drain and rinse it. Let it dry or pat it dry and use it in the recipe. No weird pink color! (Works with carrots too.)

We have been searching for the perfect Mexican slaw recipe for a couple of years, and this is it!! Thanks for the great recipe...it is soooo good. I recently stumbled across your blog and am so glad I did.

Kalyn, thanks so much for this recipe! I've posted this one in my newsletter this week for my audience. We had this last night and it totally jazzed up my leftover Tamale Pie...my husband, who is not the biggest cabbage fan, had two helpings!

Kalyn, my husband and I are gearing up to start the South Beach Diet soon. I am so glad to have found your site. I love to cook, so I am looking forward to continue making awesome meals while on this diet, thanks to you.

I love slaws like this. I've recently started blending the cilantro, green onion, lime, mayo and a little milk or cream, along with a seeded jalapeno due to some "fussies" in the group. (I don't like onion, ciantro, etc.) The thing I noticed is how well the flavors meld when the dressing is blended together before tossing with the slaw.

Your recipe is making me hungry for tacos with cilantro slaw! I just love your recipes.

I came across your blog today and enjoyed it. Is it ok if we re-post some of your entries in our newsletter? I just think a lot of the food and beverage people who visit our community would like reading some of your posts, even though they are mainly industry professionals, they are still ‘foodies’. Let me know J

We make this slaw all the time at our house. I was thrilled when I first made your recipe. I use cabbage often, in soups and things, but rarely use an entire head in one meal. So I always plan another meal that I can make this coleslaw with to use up the remainder of the cabbage.

We were out of limes once when I made it, and it just wasn't the same with lemon juice. The lime juice (and cilantro!) definitely makes the salad. Thanks for such great recipes.

I've been meaning to make this for years. When I finally went to make this yesterday, I realized that I only had a little cilantro (mostly stems) left. I added them to the dressing and blended it in my mini-chopper- delish!

I salt the coleslaw mix in a strainer for maybe 30 minutes to get some of the water out while I prep everything else. Mix together the first set of ingredients, put all the veg in a bowl, then combine and let it marry for at least an hour. It's just so incredibly fresh and light. Sometimes I throw in extra julienned carrots if I have them. You can also halve the recipe... I typically just use one bag of slaw with a smaller red pepper and then halve the other veggies.

Now I have an entire meal! Eachiladas and slaw, thank you. I love a new twist on a food that is simple. There was a time that I used to tell my husband I was going to write a book on slaw, sort of a foodie tour of them. Every restaurant has a different take on slaw from creamy to vinegar, from sweet to spicy, it is so versatile. Thanks for the yummy recipe can't wait to try it.

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